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13 June 2017

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – TrendAz

Situation of the Armenian diaspora in the United States has significantly deteriorated after Trump’s becoming president. There are many reasons for that, beginning with the fact that Trump is not interested in financial injections offered by Armenian lobbyists to American politicians as generous rewards and ending with the fact that during the pre-election race, the Armenian lobby made a wrong bet, hysterically supporting the candidate from the Democratic party.

Another big problem for the Armenian lobby of the United States was the fact that almost all members of the Armenia-US friendship group in the Congress spoke out for tougher sanctions against Russia and for the investigation of Russia’s interference in the US elections.

It should be understood that Russia is of great importance for Armenia, and the Armenian diaspora is well aware of this. Armenia is Russia’s outpost in the South Caucasus, for which it still receives significant financial injections. And in return for this, the Armenian lobby often paid to Moscow in its own way – acting as a hidden lobbyist for Russia’s influence.

However, recently everything went wrong. Despite the fact that the congressmen, bribed by Armenian money, are ready to work in return for generous injections, the fawning of the Armenian lobby with the Kremlin didn’t affect the attitude of the congressmen towards Russia.

It is worth giving several examples of statements by pro-Armenian congressmen who are members of the Armenia-US friendship group.

For example, Representative Anna Eshoo has called for investigation into hacking ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to help elect Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the pro-Armenian representative compares the “attack” on US democracy with the attack by Osama bin Laden on the US.

 “Sixteen years later, our country is once again under attack, and this time from Vladimir Putin and his Russian government,” wrote Eshoo in her article published by The Mercury News.

Another pro-Armenian congresswoman, Jackie Speier, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, says that the “relationship the President and those around him have with Russia is creating an absolutely unacceptable environment.”

Anti-Russian statements of other pro-Armenian congressmen, who are members of the Armenia-US friendship group and sign the demands on US authorities not to cut financial support for Armenia, promote in every way the issue of Washington’s recognition of the so-called genocide of Armenians, aren’t good too.

Some experts in Armenia think that Russia is trying to influence the US diaspora and the congressmen lobbied by it through Armenia, but this is unlikely in the current situation, since in reality, the relations between Moscow and Washington are now better than those of the Armenian diaspora and the White House.